


Coward

by LisaDuncansTwin



Category: The Sentinel
Genre: Based on a song, M/M, Mentions of Rape, Mentions of Violence, OMG just realized it's sung by the same person as the last story I posted! Weird!, Written today when all the puzzle pieces fit, Yeah like usual
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-05-05
Updated: 2013-05-05
Packaged: 2017-12-10 10:44:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 1
Words: 970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/785161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LisaDuncansTwin/pseuds/LisaDuncansTwin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When your back's against the wall, your true colors shine through.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Coward

**Author's Note:**

> Betaed by Kelly this fine evening. Written for Patt cause she said she wanted me to write something and I just laughed but today... well, astral alignment or something. :)

Everyone considered him the coward of the county, and never once had he stood up to prove them wrong. His mama named him Jimmy, but most folks just called him Yellow. 

He was only 10 years old when his daddy died in prison and I looked after Jimmy ‘cause he was my brother’s son. I can still recall the final words my brother said to Jimmy.

“Son, my life is over but yours has just begun. Promise me, son, not to do the things I’ve done. Walk away from trouble when you can. It don’t mean you’re weak if you turn the other cheek. Son, you don’t have to fight to be a man.”

There’s someone for everyone and Jimmy’s love was Blair. They met when Jimmy went to the clinic in Cascade instead of the one closer to home in Tacoma. Town folk thought he was crazy like his daddy, and maybe he was, but he didn’t need to give them anymore reason to treat him badly. He’d always been able to see things better than anyone else and his sense of smell was very astute; now he was starting to hear things that he shouldn’t, which is why I insisted on driving him.

Well, it seems that somehow Jimmy’s file ended up on young Blair Sandburg’s desk, a young college student doing his graduate work in psychology. I can’t say for sure if it was love at first sight but I know Jimmy told me to go on home, that _Blair_ would bring him home. 

Jimmy came by the farm three days later looking like a cat what ate the canary and it didn’t take long to figure out why when I saw the long haired hippie kid following him around. Couple weeks later, the kid was moving into Jimmy’s cabin, calling him _Jim_ now, making all kind of changes, cooking all sorts of different food, which I admit, were pretty good.

The small minded people in the town wagged their tongues a little extra, but I figured more power to ‘em; to hell with what anyone else thought. Jimmy- Jim seemed happy enough—hell, happier than I’d ever remembered seeing him and that was all I’d ever really wanted for him.

With his family reputation, as well as his own, Jim had a hard time finding and keeping jobs, but he’d settled into working days at the hardware store, stocking the shelves and night cleaning the library after it was closed. From what I could tell, Blair was able to help Jim get his senses under control so things like industrial cleaners didn’t irritate his eyes, nose and skin. 

Oh, by the by, that’s what was wrong with Jim, his senses. All of ‘em were hypersensitive. A sentinel, that’s what Blair says Jim is, like a watchman or protector. Although, in this town, I’m not sure anybody’d ever let Jim protect ‘em. Blair was working as a TA for an anthropology professor, Stoddard, I think, plus volunteering at the hospital a couple days a week. They pretty much kept busy and kept to themselves. Happy as clams, I do believe. And then **it** happened. 

One night when Jim was working, the Gatlin boys came calling on Blair. They took turns with him, roughing him up and... well, you know. And there was three of them... Quinn, Brackett and Kincaid. 

It’s a wonder they didn’t kill the kid, knowing the sort of men they are.

So, I was coming home with Jim that night and when he opened the door… well, when Jim saw Blair’s torn clothes and shattered look, I think it near caused Jim to lose his mind. Blair refused to go to the hospital but he let Jim help him shower and tend his wounds while I straightened up the mess they’d made. Once Blair was wrapped in a blanket, a cup of hot tea in his hand, Jim took his daddy’s picture down from the mantle above the fireplace.

Tears fell on the picture and I just know Jim was hearing his daddy’s words again. 

“Promise me, son, not to do the things I’ve done. Walk away from trouble when you can. It don’t mean you’re weak if you turn the other cheek. Son, you don’t have to fight to be a man.”

Blair practically begged Jim not to go. I started to try and stop him myself but then I saw the look in his eyes… the sentinel, the protector... the words died in my mouth.

“Stay with Blair.” I didn’t dare defy him.

Now, the way I heard it, the Gatlin brothers just laughed at Jim when he walked in the door. One of them, Kincaid, I believe, met him halfway across the floor.

“Hey look, old Yellow’s leavin',” they taunted.

But you could have heard a pin drop when Jimmy turned and locked the door. 

Twenty years of crawling were bottled up inside him. He wasn’t holding nothing back, he let ‘em have it all. When Jim left the barroom, not a Gatlin boy was standing.

“This one’s for Blair,” he said, when the last one fell. 

Or so I’ve been told.

When Jim came back that night, he dropped to his knees right at Blair’s side, and took the kid’s hands in his.

“I promised my dad not to do the things he’d done. I walk away from trouble when I can. Now please don’t think I’m weak, I didn’t turn the other cheek. Sometimes you gotta fight when you’re a man.”

Blair nodded and kissed Jim right there in front of me. It was the most touching moment I’d ever seen between two people. Really.

Six weeks later Jim ran for County Sheriff. He won by a landslide.

Everyone considered him the coward of the county. Huh. Showed them.

**Author's Note:**

> Based on the Kenny Rogers song Coward of the County.


End file.
